Interesting to hear the news of Donal Og Cusacks imminent arrival to Clare. It's a very shrewd move by Davy Fitz following a bit of a turbulent season west of the Shannon. Things were going stale down there but the arrival of Cusack as coach will really give the players renewed optimism and they will be excited by the new approach that he will bring.
I think a similar appointment in Laois would be very welcome, in the same role as a coach to work under cheddar. I think laois were a little short on ideas this year and the likes of galway found out how to play against us. I think Ger Cunningham has been good but I think a change is needed and a bit of a shake up to keep the interest of the players. I know it might be difficult to get a high profile coach, the likes of Cusack would have been ideal for us. There are people out there but I know Laois might not be the most attractive proposition.
The decision of Pat Crichley to return back to the underage structures is absolutely vital for the future of the game in our County. I think the minor set-up also needs a new approach and a new impetus. The Management appointment is a huge one as this minor team has got real potential, it hasn't happened over the past couple of years for our minors as they have had good teams but hopefully our fortunes will change next year.
In my opinion our current county team is not good enough to succeed at the highest level, our minors and under 21s have failed over the past few years with what we considered to be reasonably good sides. Our development squads 14,15,16 this year were not at the races which is a real shame and a concern, hence my reasoning for starting this thread.
I think Pat Critchley is the man to head up a complete overhaul of our outdated underage structures and I feel it's a root and branch plan needs to be drawn up that will ultimately produce better players to play for our County at development squad and County minor level. People have a perception in laois and indeed outside of laois that we have underage structures that puts other counties to shame, that's not the case. Compared with some counties we are well behind.
Maybe we don't have the resources for this but a 'Laois hurling school of excellence' should be set up with a number of different strands to it. I would set up a player development committee to monitor each County players progress from the age of 13 to 18. Plans would be drawn up by each respective development squad management and reviewed by members of the committee and monitored regularly from year to year. Players would be put on strength and conditioning (within reason for juveniles)programmes as well as a hurling skills programme to work on the weaknesses. Top coaches with minimum of level one coaching coarse should be deployed to look after these teams with the help of the development commitee.
I would also regionalise the setanta programme, divide it into four hurling strongholds in Laois. The reason for this is kids wouldn't have to travel to portlaoise every weekend and it would encourage more to get involved. We would then have four strong divisions rather than one. Supervised Buses should also be provided to transport our young hurlers to 'county training'.
I am well aware the we probably don't have the funds to implement the structures we would like and to be fair Cheddar has done his fair share of campaigning to the powers that be to get us the funding we need.
Basically I think we need to go back to the drawing board and try to put something in place that would give us a some chance of success in the future. I hate being too pessimistic about our chances but I am a realist and we just can't keep doing what we are doing. Any thoughts on this?
I think a similar appointment in Laois would be very welcome, in the same role as a coach to work under cheddar. I think laois were a little short on ideas this year and the likes of galway found out how to play against us. I think Ger Cunningham has been good but I think a change is needed and a bit of a shake up to keep the interest of the players. I know it might be difficult to get a high profile coach, the likes of Cusack would have been ideal for us. There are people out there but I know Laois might not be the most attractive proposition.
The decision of Pat Crichley to return back to the underage structures is absolutely vital for the future of the game in our County. I think the minor set-up also needs a new approach and a new impetus. The Management appointment is a huge one as this minor team has got real potential, it hasn't happened over the past couple of years for our minors as they have had good teams but hopefully our fortunes will change next year.
In my opinion our current county team is not good enough to succeed at the highest level, our minors and under 21s have failed over the past few years with what we considered to be reasonably good sides. Our development squads 14,15,16 this year were not at the races which is a real shame and a concern, hence my reasoning for starting this thread.
I think Pat Critchley is the man to head up a complete overhaul of our outdated underage structures and I feel it's a root and branch plan needs to be drawn up that will ultimately produce better players to play for our County at development squad and County minor level. People have a perception in laois and indeed outside of laois that we have underage structures that puts other counties to shame, that's not the case. Compared with some counties we are well behind.
Maybe we don't have the resources for this but a 'Laois hurling school of excellence' should be set up with a number of different strands to it. I would set up a player development committee to monitor each County players progress from the age of 13 to 18. Plans would be drawn up by each respective development squad management and reviewed by members of the committee and monitored regularly from year to year. Players would be put on strength and conditioning (within reason for juveniles)programmes as well as a hurling skills programme to work on the weaknesses. Top coaches with minimum of level one coaching coarse should be deployed to look after these teams with the help of the development commitee.
I would also regionalise the setanta programme, divide it into four hurling strongholds in Laois. The reason for this is kids wouldn't have to travel to portlaoise every weekend and it would encourage more to get involved. We would then have four strong divisions rather than one. Supervised Buses should also be provided to transport our young hurlers to 'county training'.
I am well aware the we probably don't have the funds to implement the structures we would like and to be fair Cheddar has done his fair share of campaigning to the powers that be to get us the funding we need.
Basically I think we need to go back to the drawing board and try to put something in place that would give us a some chance of success in the future. I hate being too pessimistic about our chances but I am a realist and we just can't keep doing what we are doing. Any thoughts on this?